This is Me Like it or not

COPIED OVER FROM MY LIVE JOURNAL

So here I am on LJ. Not someplace I expected to be. But here all the same. I have a blogspot on blogger.com but headed over here because I wanted to be able to read what my freind is up to. That said. Here is a little about me. I am 28 years old and a Stay at Home Mom. No that doesn't mean I can't get a job outside of the house, or that I have no work ethic. Have a husband that is wealthy or many of the other things that people often think when they hear a wife works at home. What it means is that I am the mother of one 8 year old boy with an Autism Spectrum Disorder who during the course of a regular week has 20 hours of therapy. Gets sent home from school sick for things related to his Autism that he can't control, etc . It means that working would be more of a hardship on our family than not working is. Yes, it means money is tight. But, it would be tighter if we had to find a special sitter who was able to accept and deal with the life my son leads. It balances itself out in that rocky, hanging on the edge, praying not to fall over, holding on by my fingers nails type of way. In our family there is me( Valerie), my husband ( Jason) and our son ( A ) he is heading into 3rd grade when our summer break concludes in the fall and in between all the above mentioned therapy hours he is also a devoted Cub Scout and Martial Arts Student. He is a friendly, happy, loving boy who also happens to have a hard road to travel in life and makes the very best of what he lives with. I am proud of who he is and proud of the person he is made me and my husband. Our world has changed many times over the years from the life we thought we would have to the life we wouldnt change for anything. Yes, each day is a struggle. But the struggles come with hugs, and tears and triumphs just like those of any other parents life. I am going to finish this first post with something that was sent to me when my son was first diagnosed with an ASD in 2005. Also at the end of this post I will add some links in case anyone out there reading would like to know more about Autism Spectrum Disorders.
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley.c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...... When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland. National Alliance for Autism Research - Walk F.A.R. for NAAR: ASDHOPE - Home Asperger Syndrome